The present invention relates to an aerosol-generating article comprising a mouthpiece including a substantially transparent tubular segment. The invention finds particular application as an elongate smoking article, such as a cigarette.
Filter cigarettes typically comprise a cylindrical rod of tobacco cut filler surrounded by a paper wrapper and a cylindrical filter axially aligned in an abutting end-to-end relationship with the wrapped tobacco rod. The cylindrical filter typically comprises a filtration material circumscribed by a paper plug wrap. Conventionally, the wrapped tobacco rod and the filter are joined by a band of tipping wrapper, normally formed of an opaque paper material that circumscribes the entire length of the filter and an adjacent portion of the wrapped tobacco rod.
A number of smoking articles in which tobacco is heated rather than combusted have also been proposed in the art. In heated smoking articles, an aerosol is generated by heating a flavour generating substrate, such as tobacco. Known heated smoking articles include, for example, electrically heated smoking articles and smoking articles in which an aerosol is generated by the transfer of heat from a combustible fuel element or heat source to a physically separate aerosol forming material. During smoking, volatile compounds are released from the aerosol forming substrate by heat transfer from the fuel element and entrained in air drawn through the smoking article. As the released compounds cool they condense to form an aerosol that is inhaled by the consumer. Also known are smoking articles in which a nicotine-containing aerosol is generated from a tobacco material, tobacco extract, or other nicotine source, without combustion, and in some cases without heating, for example through a chemical reaction.
Some smoking articles proposed in the art include a window provided in a wrapper, such as a tipping wrapper, the window allowing a consumer to observe the effectiveness of an underlying filter segment by observing discolouration of the filter segment at the end of the smoking experience. However, such a construction only allows the consumer to observe the effect towards the end of the smoking experience, as it is necessary for the discolouration to accumulate throughout the smoking experience before the effect is noticeable.
It would be desirable to provide a novel aerosol-generating article that provides an observable effect inside the aerosol-generating article throughout the entire smoking experience.